(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to building construction and more particularly concerns a perimeter or partition wall construction wherein wall panels are engaged at the edges thereof by substantially identical and interchangeable panel clips, and having integral means for being engaged with "H" shaped studs or "Z" splines having an engageable flange.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
The installation of gypsum, veneered gypsum, wood fiber or mineral fiber panels to the interior of perimeter, i.e., external and generally load-bearing walls is a widely used method of construction in residential, commercial and industrial applications to confer decorative esthetic or functional insulative properties upon the perimeter wall. Generally, the perimeter wall is composed of concrete, brick or other masonry precluding the direct attachment of a wall panel thereto; the desirability of installing vapor barrier or insulative materials between the wall panel and the perimeter wall, taken together with the difficulty in attaching the wall panel directly to the perimeter wall, have resulted in the industry-accepted construction comprising the first attachment of furring or studding by means of nailing or screwing the wall panels into surfaces of those supports subjacent the wall panels. With the appearance of perimeter wall systems of all types, the affixation of wall panels to subjacent supports by nail or screw attachment, followed by taping or plastering the abutting edges of the panels to conceal the nail or screw holes, has found less acceptance in the marketplace.
In attempts to obviate screw or nail attachment of panels to their support members in perimeter wall construction systems comprising unfinished, i.e., non-decorative, wall boards or gypsum boards and the taping or plastering attendant thereto, and to allow the attachment of veneered or pre-finished, i.e., decorative, wall boards or gypsum boards without unsightly fastener holes or material to cover those holes, many partition and perimeter wall construction systems utilize various studs, shims, clips and wall panel edge configurations in various combinations, and other components, to facilitate the installation of such perimeter wall panels without causing damage to abutting edges of the panels of the wall system. In providing for such convenient installation, many such systems require specially formed studs for the adaptive engagement of similarly specially formed panel engaging clips. Such studs have typically required particular openings or marginal or flange elements adapted for use, in turn, with particularly shaped clips. Other systems use conventional "I"-shaped or "J"-shaped studs or "Z"-shaped splines or channel-shaped studs, and provide for the facile installation of panels thereon through the use of clips fixedly engageable with the wall panel and with the stud or spline. These systems provide the sought for ease of installation, but such clips known in the prior art, when fixedly attached to the wall panel by the impalement of tines or prongs thereinto, often give rise to a major problem commonly known in the construction art as "pooching", i.e., an abnormal protrusion or distension or swelling of one or both of the covering or laminar layers of the wall panel. This defect takes the form of a blister or bubble in the exterior laminar layer caused either by the impaling tines diverging toward either surface of the panel or by the fracture or comminution and displacement toward the covering or laminar layer of the material of construction of the wall panel by the impaling tines or prongs. This problem is especially acute in veneered or pre-finished, i.e., decorative, wall panels, since no means exist to repair such a "pooching" defect when it occurs in the veneered or pre-finished decorative interior surface or laminar layer.